Oliso_Inc

Hey MisterKrazee, Yep, the SmartHub is great for small batch BIAB style brewing! It will precisely hit you mash temps and and quickly step between temps if desired. We've gotten a lot of interest from people doing small batch brewing!

You can set the exact temperature in the liquid bath, but with your own pots and pans it is only level 0 through 10. The issue with being able to assign a temperature range to a pan or griddle is that a single temperature reading won't describe the temperature everywhere on the pan. If you put a room temp steak on the center of a 500F pan, the area under the steak will very quickly be far less than that and will often persist to be a much lower temperature than the surrounding area. Our goal with the thermocouple in the Griddle Smart Top is to be able to quickly sense a temperature drop and pump heat in to compensate. Getting up to temperature in the liquid bath is extremely fast compared to circulators. Two gallons of water from 59F to 149F takes our unit 23 minutes - the same takes 43 with an Anova circulator in a stock pot.

That was in our FAQ's and is not accurate. The marketing people got it from an old document which described moving the pan as a strategy meant to address an overheating problem in which heavy pans of certain geometries could radiate too much head down through the cooktop. That issue has since been resolved, so that recommendation doesn't apply anymore. I'll update that now. The cooktop surface is glass and it is quite easy to slide pans around on it when necessary. As a 90's kid, I appreciate you CD case analogy and I know exactly what you are describing!

That isn't on our Kickstarter page, is it? That is not the case with our unit. The coil is about 180mm in diameter and does a good job heating the entire pan. Sandwich construction pans will generally distribute heat more evenly than cast iron. EDIT: That was in our FAQ's and is not accurate. The marketing people got it from an old document and moving the pan was a strategy meant to address an overheating problem that has since been resolved. I'll update that now.

Shalmanese - can you explain what you are suggesting we do with a probe like the meater? Would the idea be that you set your bath to a certain temperature and then have the device turn off when the inside of the meat reaches temp? What we have in mind for the future development of the SmartHub is a liquid probe that could be used as a feedback mechanism in your own pots and pans. It is something that we are working on, but we aren't quite far enough along to start selling that as part of this kickstarter campaign.

Yes, you should have no problem using your existing cookware to deep fry on the induction hob just as you would on your gas or electric range. The intervals are 0 through 10. Since there is no feedback mechanism with your own cookware it makes more sense to use power levels instead of temperature ranges. The temperature of different pans will vary at the same power level due to differences in materials and shape. A standard cast iron pan will get to around 600F on level 10.

Unfortunately you won't be able to deep fry in the bath, the firmware maxes out the temperature you can set it to at a boil. We are definitely interested in developing a deep frying top in the future.

Chris - I've been curious to see what people do with it in that regard as well. I've read a lot of people talking about using there SV supreme for broths and I'm interested in trying some of those techniques in the SmartHub in the near future. And thank you for backing our project! gfweb - Yeah, for use as a Sous Vide machine it is very similar. One nice thing about separating the heat source from the bath is that it makes it really easy to clean without worrying about damaging the electronics. The SmartHub is also significantly faster than the SVS.

Capacity is 10.4 liters - dimensions are approx 301mm x 240mm x 195mm (l,w,d). Yes, the retail price will be $500. If you are one of the first 100 backers then it will be $249 and then after that it will be $299. Once the campaign is over and we are selling them retail they will be at the full price of $500. Yes, it works and any induction capable pan just like the Burton series and will fit a 12" pan. As to somebody being willing to take the Sous Vide Top off and put a griddle on to finish their sous vide dinner I don't know why that would be unlikely - I do it all the time! I just set the Sous Vide Top on the counter; it has a heavy duty plastic frame so there is no risk of damaging the surface you are placing it on due to heat.

1. You are correct. Induction is much more efficient than any other type of range or hob, but for heating liquid in a bath an immersion element is more efficient. If I had to guess it would be something like 90% efficiency vs 99% for a submerged electric element. Is there somewhere on the Kickstarter where we claim otherwise? If so, tell me where so I can go fix it. 2. Convection currents and diffusion keep the heat extremely evenly distributed. Through extensive testing with thermocouple arrays and infrared cameras, we've found that there is almost perfect heat distribution in the bath. The only exception to this is at the very bottom of the bath, the metal bottom itself is sometimes a fraction of a degree hotter than the water. To solve the issue that this presented we've designed and included a stainless steel baffle that holds food slightly off the bottom of the pan. We really wanted to be able to use the top for liquids other than water, so this solution was much more appealing to us than the prospect of building in a pump to move water. 3. For the most part you may be right, but I do think that some cooks might think twice about running their circulator for 8 days in a row due to the electricity cost. Depending on how insulated the container being used it, that could get expensive.

Thanks Chris! We realize that lots of people are very happy with their immersion circulators and we aren't necessarily billing the SmartHub exclusively as an alternative to a circulator. To address your concern about us selling something that the world doesn't need, I'd like to instead offer that it is a great solution for some people and in some situations, but it isn't something that I would insist that everyone needs to own. Here is what we really like about the SmartHub and why we designed it the way that we did: Circulators are single purpose tools - they keep water, and only water, at a precise temperature. For the most part this limits their use to only sous vide, making them an expensive device that can only do one thing. Sous vide is only one of the amazing things that precise temperature control allows. We've found chefs using the SmartHub for many techniques that benefit from temperature control, like extractions, infusions, and fermentation (it can hold liquids as low as 86F for indefinite periods of time with extremely low energy consumption). If you wanted to try these things with a circulator you would have to first seal your ingredients into bags and even then the agitation created by the pump would effect the results. For an illustration of this ask a barista about the importance of agitation in the preparation of pour-over coffee, one of the most common extractions done in the kitchen. Since the ability to hold liquids at exact temperatures for long periods of time hasn't been within reach of most chefs until now, we don't yet know many of the things that chefs will be able to do with it. To extend the coffee illustration; you probably know what cold brew coffee tastes like, but do you know what coffee extracted at 95 degrees F for 5 hours tastes like? We gave an early test unit to the amazing Courtney Burns at Bar Tartine in SF and she has been doing incredible extractions with it, mostly in the bar. If you live in the area we highly recommend you go try some of her drinks for inspiration. The fact that circulators are placed in pots and plastic tubs also presents issues for many chefs. Since you can't use lids with something sticking out of the pot, you are going to lose water to evaporation, which can become a big problem on a long cook. Some users have even resorted to using ping-pongs balls in a layer on top of the water in order to overcome this problem. As for the amount of food you can fit on our bath compared to a circulator, there are a few things to consider. First, our bath is very large (maximum capacity of 10.4 liters) and has no problem fitting a a whole chicken. Circulators will work in a multitude of containers, but there are limits to the amount of water they can heat. I've maxed out a few of them when trying to cook at a high water temperature in a large tub. The Sous Vide Smart Top retains heat more effectively than a circulator due to the combination of its tempered glass lid, deep bath that minimizes liquid surface area, and the double-wall insulation of the bath. This means that the Smart Hub only has to use minimal energy to maintain bath temperature, as opposed to a circulator that must constantly be running. While it is definitely nice to have lower power bills and reduce your ecological footprint, this feature is the biggest boon to people interested in cooking sous vide on boats and in RVs. Finally, there is convenience and appearance to consider. When you have to set up a pot and circulator, fashion a lid from saran wrap, and wait for the circulator to get up to temperature you will probably find yourself cooking sous vide a lot less often. For many owners of circulators, this restricts there use of sous vide to special occasions and it means that they aren't going to be learning the technique as well as they would if they did it more often. I know that when I had a circulator I was very unlikely to break it out just to make myself a chicken breast for dinner when I could do it in a quarter of the time in a pan, but with the SmartHub it's a no-brainer. The other reason I'm more likely to use it is that it is that I like the way it looks in my kitchen. I don't want to have a pot with a plastic wand coming out of it and saran wrap or ping pong balls over that sitting out on my counter top. The SmartHub, on the other hand, is elegant and improves the appearance of my kitchen. Most of this content is on the Kickstarter campaign page buried in the FAQs. I thought I would move it include it here so that you could read what the SmartHub is all about without having to visit our page in case it isn't for you. I'd love to answer any questions people have about the SmartHub and I'll check back here for the next couple of days to do that. --Jonathan